John Power Photography

About John: I grew up under the Comeragh Mountains Co Waterford and undoubtedly the beauty of these hills and lakes influenced me to become a hobby photographer even if it took many decades to get going. However it was a picture of daffodils in the ‘Sweet Vale of Belvoir’ which brought some recognition when it won the Spring and Overall RTE Weather Photo Competition in 2005. I have had a number of pictures feature in this and other photo competitions/calendars.

JP and SK in the Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford 2010

My heroes are Sean Kelly and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. That’s enough about me rather permit me to offer a few more pix some of which have featured in competitions. Catherine took the pic of me in Clare colours (Dolmen Cycling Club) being presented a certificate for completing the Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford in 2010. Sean is perhaps the most famous son of my home area. I am unable to provide a pic of my other hero.

When Steve Fosset and Mark Rebholz flew across the Atlantic in 2005 in the replica Vicker’s Vimy recreating the famous Alcock and Brown flight and landed in Connemara, I was there and took a pic of the a/c and was honoured to have a pic taken with Steve. Earlier in the day, I was at work and we were were communicating with the Vimy via the big jets overhead as it inched its way across the ‘Pond’. We had a wonderful holiday in the American SW in 2008 and passed through the general area where sadly he disappeared in a light aircraft. The glorious mountains are the ‘High Sierras’.

Vimy Clifden GC

Steve Fosset

Desert to High Sierras at Long Pines

Bunratty in Drizzle and Dungarvan Harbour in Moonlight featured in GoIreland/John Hinde calendars. The Top of Mahon Falls is another ‘weather photo’. That inner lake in the Coumalochs, Comeraghs is one of my favourite places.

Bunratty in Drizzle

Dungarvan Harbour in Moonlight

Light Waves Inner Coumaloch

Catherine discovered a small old worn pic taken by her grand uncle Christy O’Riordan in which the neighbours in O’Neill St. Clonmel are gathered to listen to the 1933 Hurling All Ireland on the new fangled ‘wireless’. How many people remember that custom? I repaired the pic and it is now in the RTE archives. The child with his hand to his face is Catherine’s father who passed away last year.

Nature is boss and demonstrates some of its enormous power in the flood waters of November 2009 sweeping past ‘The Miller’ in Sixmilebridge.

Takeoff Shannon

TWA Connie Shannon

I took this pic (Takeoff Shannon) taking off from Shannon in 2006. I was puzzled by the waterways and then realised that I was looking at Inishmacnaughton Island on the bottom right. About two years later this island came into sharp focus when Frank Daly at work brought in an old black white pic of a TWA Constellation (the famous Connie) at Shannon and asked did we know anything about it. I scanned and emailed the pic to TWA friend, Capt Lou Burns in Newport RI who circulated the pic to his retired TWA colleagues. Sadly what came back was a US air accident report on the crash of this a/c on Inishmacnaughton Island in late December 1946. I was then asked by Capt Jeff Hill, editor of their retired pilots association to assist in writing an account of the disaster for their mag. I visited the island, met a number of people still alive who were on the island that night and relatives of people involved and did other research. Connections were made on the other side of the Atlantic. This has been described as Ireland’s first major civil air disaster now largely forgotten but rediscovered because of an old photograph. The entire front page of the first edition of the Clare Champion in 1947 was devoted to the accident and described the horrific scenes on the island that night and the heroic rescue of the survivors across the muddy channel separating the island and the mainland. The crash location is in the lower right of the aerial pic and the channel can be seen. The tide was out that fateful night, the stretcher bearers were knee deep in mud crossing the channel. Later the tide came in and a boat could be used. An account of this accident can be found in Michael O’Toole’s excellent book – Cleared for Disaster.

Images by John Power

Kilkishen Castle

Kilkishen History Walk – Shannon Archaelogical Society and Kilkishen People in grounds of Kilkishen Castle led by Michael McNamara and Sean Hehir.

Sleán Monument, Kilkishen. This monument was erected at the completion of the new sewerage scheme in Kilkishen in 2004 and was funded by the EU. It’s a replica of the common Sleán which was the implement that turf cutters used to hand cut turf around the country up to about the nineteen eighties when it was replaced by machine cutting methods. Kilkishen is famous for its many bogs where turf was cut so its presumed that this is the reason for selecting this turf cutting instrument known as the Sleán which is a gaelic word.

Sleán Kilkishen Moon Venus Jupiter. For some reason I wanted to line up the Sleán with this celestial conjunction.

Northern Lights seen in Belvoir October or November 2001. About 10 O’clock I went outside possibly to close the front gate. Much of the northern part of the sky was glowing with the Northern Lights (aurora borealis) which are rarely seen at these latitudes. I got my film (then) camera, put it on the tripod and guessed some manual exposures of 30 to 60 seconds. When the film came back I was delighted with the results. The pic attached is scanned from the print. I did not see the colour red that night because human night vision is not strong on colours. The Lights are bright because of the long exposure. The Plough (Ursa Major) can be seen through the green on the right.

PJ Ryan and the Dodge. I was coming home from work via 6MB and met PJ who told me that he was repairing Dev’s old Dodge which was stored behind the Library in Ennis. I told him that I knew about this car because when I was a secondary school student in Mount Melleray, west Waterford, President DeValera’s big black Rolls used to be seen going up the long avenue in stately procession to the monastery every autumn for his annual retreat (not military). Someone told me that this car was now stored at the back of the Library in Ennis. When I checked it out I found that it was Dev’s private Dodge that was stored here. Of course I cannot remember with certainty which car I saw in Mount Melleray in the early sixties. PJ then kindly took me for a drive in this historic car and explained some of its features such as a hydraulic element to the clutch that allows it to take off in top gear.

Weather winners Spring 2005

Gable of Old Church at Clonlea. This pic was taken for Sean Hehir’s Kilkishen Heritage talk in the Clubhouse as part of the Clare Shout Festival in 2006. I understand the gable is now in danger of falling.

Clonlea Church 11th July 2012

Upper Lakes Killarney. We were on our way back from a wonderful midday performance of W A Mozart’s ‘Gran Partita’ for 13 wind instruments in St Brendan’s Church Bantry. This scene seems to resonate with the music.

Opening Playground Kilkishen 11 March 2010

Volvo Ocean Race Galway Bay 2009. On the day the race was leaving Galway, I went out to high ground above Fanore with a view to getting a pic of the boats against the backdrop of the Twelve Bens in Connemara. Fortunately the day was clear.

Kilkishen Schools Evolution. Every building had a role in education in Kilkshen at some stage.

The gentleman in the picture is pointing (at the request of others) to his native place – the Comeragh Mountains in Co. Waterford which are visible from high places in Co. Clare on exceptionally clear days. A picture was taken on Woodcock Hill on one such day.

Woodcock Hill from the Comeraghs-Many attempts were made to do the opposite and finally one day in 2009, the hills of East Clare were spotted to the NW from the Comeraghs and a picture was taken. The insert is an enlarged crop from the same pic in which you can barely make out the ‘Golf Ball’ on Woodock Hill and the communications masts.

Father McCormick Kilkishen by John Power

Broadford Valley and Shannon and Fergus Estuaries from Craggnamurragh

Ennis- Cathedral, Old Ground, Dunnes Stores, and Museum from Knockanuarha or Twelve O’Clock Hills by John Power

Mount Melleray Dormitories and Abbey by John Power

Nancy and Mary Murphy Clare Shout winner 2008 (and we mustn’t forget John). I was out with the camera during the Clare Shout Festival parade in 2008 and saw Nancy sitting at her doorstep. I got up the street smartly and if John hadn’t stopped the car I might not have got the pic. Afterwards I entered it in a photo competition run by Clare Co Co to do with the County Development plan and it won the senior section.